This invention relates to a tear-off closure for use with a bottle and more particularly to a closure having an outwardly flaring collar depending from the skirt wall, the collar adapted to intimately contact a portion of the bottle and thus shield the neck and upper exterior portion of the bottle from contamination.
In some usages of bottles for dispensing liquids, it is important to provide a clean exterior surface on the bottle neck and a substantial portion of the bottle adjacent the neck. In one method of dispensing drinking water, for example, water is provided in a bottle having a neck and a generally frustoconically shaped portion flaring outward from the neck connecting a cylindrically shaped container portion of the bottle. A closure is applied to cover the mouth and at least some portion of the bottle neck to prevent contamination of the covered portion of the bottle neck. At the point of dispensing the water from the bottle, the closure is removed from the bottle and the bottle is then inverted into an opening in a water dispensing unit. Typically, the bottle rests upon a sealing ring within the opening to a water chamber in the unit, and thus the exterior portion of the neck and a surrounding portion of the bottle within a zone defined by the cirumference of the sealing ring are exposed to a chamber in the dispensing unit into which the water enters. It is apparent that in dispensing water in this manner it is important to maintain a clean exterior surface on the portions of the bottle exposed to the water chamber.
Faulstich U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,137 and Martinelli U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,653 describe closures that have been suggested for use with water bottles. The patentees describe closures which include a skirt wall protecting at least a portion of the exterior of a bottle neck and a tearable portion to enable a user to quickly and conveniently remove the closure from the bottle.
Neither of the above-mentioned patents describes a closure which shields or protects an exterior surface of a bottle extending beyond the exterior surface of the neck. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a closure which completely protects from contamination the exterior surface of a bottle which becomes exposed to water being dispensed from the bottle when the bottle is placed in a dispensing unit.